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Dinner-Party Tips From Famous People!

By The Staff December 17, 2012 4:44 pmDecember 17, 2012 4:44 pm

Sunday’s issue included a package by Mark Bittman and Sam Sifton on how to make a feast in 8 hours. But you don’t have to take their word for it. Here are more dinner-party tips, from people who will probably never invite you to their dinner parties, as told to Spencer Bailey.

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Make a Holiday-Party PlaylistBy Questlove, D.J. and drummer, the Roots
I really like the obscure stuff. I go to Clarence Carter’s “Back Door Santa” — that’s what Run-DMC used for their Christmas song. J. D. McDonald has a song called “Boogaloo Santa Claus.” Minnie Riperton made a Christmas album with her band, Rotary Connection. They have a great song called “Christmas Child.” The Waitresses — they were known for that song in the ’80s “I Know What Boys Like” — have a song called “Christmas Wrapping.” My favorite one of all is called “Santa Claus Is a Black Man,” by Akim and Teddy Vann. It’s like an updated version of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Decorate Your Home for a Holiday PartyBy David Rockwell, architect and designer
One of the things I’m always intrigued by for the holidays is lighting. I always love to go to the Brooklyn Flea or Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market and get great vintage light fixtures because there are so many interesting, eccentric ways to use them. You can really recreate a room through the use of layers.

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Entertain Your GuestsBy Joan Rivers, comedian
Under everybody’s plate — this sounds so stupid, but it works — I write down two facts: a fact about the person on your right and a fact about the person on your left. Everybody has something to ask the person next to them. Nobody can get up later and say, “Who knew he discovered penicillin?” or, as you walk out the door, “I had no idea he slept with Angelina Jolie!”

I also usually make everyone get up and announce one thing they’re lucky for. I don’t care if it’s just “I got a manicure” or “Thank God I didn’t marry O.J. Simpson.”

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Pick the CheeseBy Marcus Samuelsson, chef and owner, Red Rooster, Harlem
My favorite holiday cheese is a hard cheese called vasterbotten, which comes from a northern region in Sweden. It’s almost sharp, like Cheddar. The other cheese I think about during the holidays is an Ethiopian cheese called ayib. It’s almost like a ricotta when it’s ready. These two cheeses are both from where I’m from, but they’re so different in character. They’re a great starting point. If they’re part of a platter, people can taste them with dates and figs and so on.

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Make Polite Conversation With a StrangerBy Pat Kiernan, news anchor, NY1
There are so many stories stirring in my head in a week. One thing that’s easy for me to do is go in with a couple things from the news of that day: a baseball score or a video of a dancing squirrel that’s the latest viral sensation.

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Not Get Drunk at a PartyBy Garrett Oliver, brewmaster, Brooklyn Brewery
Use small glasses. It slows people down. Most of what they’re doing at a party is standing with a drink in their hand, talking. As long as there’s something in the glass, you’re going to drink it. You’re going to slow down if the glass is smaller. You’d think people would react strangely to it, but they actually don’t at all.

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Seat the TableBy Marlo Thomas, actor
If you give a big party, you have to have place cards, or people won’t know where to go. I make personalized gifts for place cards. My friends have saved them through the years. I’ve done obvious things like mugs or clocks with your name on them. I’ve done baseball caps and picture frames, with the guests’ photos in them, which I think were the favorites.

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Credit Illustration by Kyle Hilton

How to Nibble WellBy Al Roker, weatherman, “Today”
Eat the fresh vegetables. The little baby carrots, the cut-up peppers. You can load up on them and there’s no damage done. And I do allow myself — and it takes a sheer amount of willpower — one pig in a blanket.

Bruce Grierson wrote this week’s cover story about Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who has conducted experiments that involve manipulating environments to turn back subjects’ perceptions of their own age.Read more…